Progressive Calisthenics as a Substitute for Gym Equipment

Fergus Jacob does elbow levers under the eye of the trainer Danny Kavadlo at Nimble Fitness in Greenwich Village.

Willie Davis for The New York Times

By KEITH MULVIHILL

June 13, 2013

ON a recent Sunday afternoon, a crowd gathered around Al Kavadlo as he performed a one-armed elbow lever: an impressive feat of strength and balance in which he supported his horizontally outstretched body with a single hand planted on the floor. His elevated body rested on an elbow tucked firmly against his abdomen.

No, this wasn’t a scene from a street performance. Mr. Kavadlo, 33, and his brother Danny, 38, were leading a workshop at Nimble Fitness in Greenwich Village for people eager to learn more about body-weight strength training, or progressive calisthenics.

“In conventional strength training there is an emphasis on doing exercises that isolate different body parts: bench press for pectoral muscles, curls for biceps and crunches for abs,” Al Kavadlo said. “In body weight strength training, the idea is to engage the whole body; progress is made by moving on to more difficult exercises, not by adding weight.”

Newbies are encouraged to start with basic moves like push-ups, pull-ups and free-standing squats. As their strength and agility improve, they can move to more challenging versions of these classic, no-gym-required exercises.

“I like that you don’t have to be the biggest, strongest guy to learn how to do these moves,” said a workshop participant, Justin Termini, 33, a lanky librarian from Lawrence, Mass.

Al Kavadlo spots Jacqueline Bacquie, as she does pull-ups.

Willie Davis for The New York Times

In recent years the Kavadlo brothers have been making names for themselves in the world of progressive calisthenics: not only do people come from all over to work out with them in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, but their YouTube tutorials have also garnered hundreds of thousands of views. This summer they will be leading Progressive Calisthenics Certification workshops for Dragon Door, the Minnesota-based fitness publishing company that helped popularize kettlebell workouts in the early 2000s.

Last year Al Kavadlo wrote “Raising the Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-Up Bar Calisthenics.”

“Amazingly, people wrote me and said, ‘Al, what if I don’t have a bar?,’ ” he said. He answered their query with his latest book, released in April, “Pushing the Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment.” (Dragon Door published both books.)

“With the new book, I wanted to take the minimalist theme a step further — what can you do with just the floor you’re standing on,” he said. The book focuses on squats, push-ups and inversions like back bridges and handstands.

During the workshop the brothers showed off their strength while demonstrating variations of the exercises featured in the latest book. They coached participants through attempts at a one-legged exercise called the pistol squat; the muscle-up, a much harder variation of a pull-up; and the two-armed elbow lever (which, thankfully, is much easier than the one-armed version).

Stephanie Abrusia, 41, of Basking Ridge, N.J., said she hoped the skills she picked up in the workshop would give her an edge for an audition for the reality show “American Ninja Warrior.” At the very least, she hoped to perfect a muscle-up. “I don’t see very many women doing that,” she said. “So I hope I can get it.”

During an interview the brothers were quick to point out that they had nothing against other forms of exercise or weight training. “We both worked out with weights for years, and it gave us a great foundation,” said Danny Kavadlo, who, like Al, is a personal trainer. But about 10 years ago, when they first saw guys doing impressive feats like one-armed pull-ups and a maneuver called the human flag, they were hooked.

“The more time spent on calisthenics moves, the less time on weight training,” Al Kavadlo said. “Before long, I gave up weight lifting all together.”

At the workshop James Berman, 47, a muscular fitness trainer from East Hanover, N.J., said he recently gave up weight lifting and hadn’t looked back. “With body strength training,” he said, “it’s all about learning how to move and control your body instead of just moving weight around.”

Al Kavadlo holds a 50-minute class at 10 a.m. most Saturdays through August in Tompkins Square Park, East Village, for $30; alkavadlo.com.